I definately like Schneider, but not over Lidstrom. You just can’t ignore that he was top 25 in scoring this year. He had more points than Naslund, Iginla, Gagne, Rolston, Sundin, Lecavlier, Forsberg and Tanguay (granted some of these players missed significant time due to injury). Lidstrom has been one of the most consistantly great defensemen in the league for years and this year he was dominant.

If we were going to give the award for consistancy over the season, I think that Phaneuf and perhaps Redden should be mentioned. Those 2 guys were amazing this year (although they’ve both kind of tanked in the playoffs).

Phaneuf moreso than Redden in the playoffs. He had some very very rookie turnovers, whereas I can at least give some sympathy for Redden who was stuck on some bad 2 on 1’s. Redden also redeemed himself with his blast through mega-traffic ftw, tonight.

Anyway, I respect what you voiced. I want to mention, that I’m glad we can have an actual convo, and disagree, and not have it break down into senseless “Leafs ROX, SENS suck” rambleness, which is often prevalent in these comment sections.

The three of them really make it exciting to watch hockey again. I love this youth movement with Lundqvist (and all of the other great young goaltenders), Phaneuf, Crosby, Ovechkin, Svatos, Vanek, Staal, etc.

It is great to know that the league is going to have some huge stars for years to come. It seems to me that in the last few years, the big guns were mostly vets and the highlight reels weren’t all that exciting. This has been a great year. I can’t wait to see what Malkin and Kessel can do!